NEWARK, November 20-- Saul K. Fenster, Ph.D., president emeritus of New Jersey Institute of Technology was recently elected president of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) Education Foundation, headquartered in Michigan. SME, now in its 70th year, is the leading professional society supporting manufacturing education.

A bit closer to home, a New Jersey chapter (Picatinny) of the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA), recently awarded Fenster, the “Firepower Award” in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the preparedness of the armed forces in the U.S.

NDIA is a new organization founded in 1997 and headquartered in Virginia. Its membership includes 950 companies and 24,000 individuals from the defense and national industrial bases with whom the U.S., through the Department of Defense, has a memorandum of understanding. NDIA members include companies that sell goods and services to departments of the executive branch of government. Other members include organizations who advise and assist these companies or that want to develop a relationship with them.

The NJIT Board of Trustees named Fenster president emeritus in June of 2002, after he stepped down as the sixth president of NJIT and had served 24 years in that office. In an emotional ceremony, trustees honored him with a resolution commending Fenster’s personal qualities. The many accolades included his “inexhaustible commitment to excellence” as well as “ being truly extraordinary in a world where extraordinary is far too scarce, but desperately needed.”

NJIT is a public, scientific and technological research university enrolling more than 8,800 students. The university offers bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees to students in 80 degree programs throughout its six colleges: Newark College of Engineering, New Jersey School of Architecture, College of Science and Liberal Arts, School of Management, Albert Dorman Honors College and College of Computing Sciences. The division of continuing professional education offers adults eLearning, off campus degrees and short courses. Expertise and research initiatives include architecture and building science, applied mathematics, biomedical engineering, environmental engineering and science, information technology, manufacturing, materials, microelectronics, multimedia, telecommunications, transportation and solar astrophysics. Yahoo! Internet Life magazine cites NJIT as a "perennially most wired" university.

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Sheryl Weinstein Public Relations (973) 596-3436